Texas Country Singer Kylie Rae Harris Killed in Car Crash

Texas-based singer and songwriter Kylie Rae Harris has died following a three-car crash in New Mexico on Wednesday night (Sept. 4). The 30-year-old was killed near Taos, N.M., an area she knew well and an area where many of her loved ones died.

Harris' final Instagram stories posts reveal that she had been traveling for 12 hours and had done some reflecting about her time in Taos. The videos were filmed in a parked car, and she had appeared to reach her destination. She was scheduled to play the Big Barn Music Festival in Taos on Thursday, a festival she said she loved.

"I spent the last 20 years of my life coming to Taos with my dad, my sisters, my grandparents lived here, my uncle still lives here," she said in a group of videos first discovered by Saving Country Music. "Literally everybody that was here has passed away, except for my uncle, including my dad."

She shared the videos at about 8PM MT. TaosNews.com reports that emergency crews were called to the crash scene at about 9PM MT.

The 16-year-old driver of another vehicle was also killed in the accident, while the driver of the third vehicle was uninjured. Alcohol is suspected as a contributor to the accident, but few details have been released by local authorities. Harris leaves behind family, including a 6-year-old daughter.

Taste of Country debuted a new song from Harris, "Big 'Ol Heartache," in January, a soulful country ballad that served as a great vocal showcase for the Dallas-area native. She spoke with enthusiasm about an upcoming EP and about putting some troubles behind her.

“My twenties weren’t a walk in the park, a lot of that admittedly self-inflicted, but I grew a lot,” Harris said. “This project feels like the close of a real painful chapter and a welcome to whatever is next.”

The poignant "Twenty Years From Now" is another song that she was known for. She wrote it for her daughter.

“Getting to the age your parents were when you were a child brings a whole lot of perspective,” Harris stated. “Parents are people. People make mistakes and being a parent is hard. I’m not always going to make the right choices, but I hope that when my daughter gets older, she’ll see that they were all made with love and the best of intentions.”

An outpouring of support and condolences has started to appear on social media. Randy Rogers spoke to Taste of Country about his friend and fellow Texas country artist on Thursday (Sept. 5) after news of her death broke.

"She was a great person, and she made everybody feel welcomed and loved and cared for. She was a really bright shining light," he states. "You know she really was. I remember the first time I heard her sing, I’ll never forget it."

Among the upcoming dates on her touring schedule was the JAB Festival in two weeks.